After three dreadful studio albums with the faceless The Unforgiving, the pop cover compilation The Q-Music Sessions and the unfocused oddball Hydra, former symphonic metal heavyweights Within Temptation finally released a decent output with Resist that focused on atmospheric futuristic pop music with a few heavy rock sections thrown in at the right moments thanks to clever songwriting.

It seems that things are back to normal in a negative way with new single Entertain You. I only discovered the song because my father told me that he had heard it on the radio on multiple occasions earlier this year. That isn't surprising in itself since that new track has as much to do with metal music as Donald Trump with being a decent president.

That song essentially consist of an overdose of nervously fidgeting electronic music elements that lack emotions. The vocals are heavily processed and sound robotic which is particularly terrible since lead singer Sharon den Adel is known to have an angelic natural voice. The single features additional vocals by Daniel Gibson who has collaborated with the band in the past. His vocals are limited to a few repetitive lines, fail to leave a deeper impression and are obviously also heavily processed. The entire song is built around a repetitive chorus that nevertheless fails to stand out.

In the end, Within Temptation's Entertain You is a step back for the band after a decent recent studio album in form of Resist. The new song offers heavily processed electronic rock music that is supposed to sound trendy, modern and catchy. That plan seems to be working since the track got a lot of airplay on the radio which might suggest that the band's idea to release it was a good business decision. As a fan of old date, I'm however disappointed. That's not because the band opted to play electronic rock music since I actually listen to that type of music from time to time. No, the issue here is that the final result sounds overproduced, robotic and ultimately soulless. I could only recommend this music to people who prefer heavily processed electronic music over actual music with real instruments and authentic vocalists. Let's hope that this artificial single is no indicator for the band's next studio album.

Final rating: 30%

Atrocity has always been a band that has changed its style so much that few people could keep track. The band started as grindcore pioneers Instigator, continued to play technical death metal, then offered industrial metal before evolving into gothic metal and even Neue Deutsche Todeskunst spheres. Die gottlosen Jahre, which translates to The Godless Years, is a much-needed release that helps fans to understand, revisit and explore the band's numerous soundscapes thanks to a detailed documentary, numerous music videos and several live clips.

The heartpiece of this release is the band's twenty-fifth anniversary concert at Wacken Open Air featuring twelve songs with a total running time of fifty-six minutes. Most songs from that show have been performed in chronological order varying from fast-paced death metal eruptions such as ''Fatal Step'' over more atmospheric oppressive industrial metal soundscapes as heard in ''Willenskraft'' to more melodic gothic metal sounds as witnessed in ''Die Todgeweihten''. The show ends with a series of eighties pop music covers featuring lead singer Alexander Krull's then-wife Liv Kristine. In addition to the diverse set list, the concert also relies on intense crowd participation towards the end and female dancers on stage. Despite offering so much to digest, the concert has excellent flow and evolves naturally thanks to a perfectly chosen set list order. The only minor thing to criticize is that the concert is very short in the context of a festival.

Anyone who would like to discover Atrocity's numerous soundscapes but doesn't know where to start or simply can't find the band's more obscure releases from the past should pick up this excellent release with an extensive documentary, numerous music videos and an excellent concert that offers many hours of entertainment. It's worth exploring different parts of this release on different occasions since it offers much replay value. The only downside is obviously that few fans will appreciate all of the band's experiments. It's also noteworthy that the live concert doesn't include any of the band's ethno rock experiments where Alexander Krull collaborated with his sister in the past. In the end, what we get here is a quirky package that requests an open-minded approach due to its at times overwhelming diversity.

Final rating: 75%

Legendary Japanese thrash metal quartet Outrage has been around for thirty-eight years as we speak and has released fourteen studio records so far. Even though the band never went on hiatus and even pulled through the nineties that saw many genre colleagues struggle, this very consistent group has never gotten its international breakthrough and remains rather unknown out of its home country. The group's new release Run Riot would be an appropriate record to finally discover this band. While it was nearly impossible to find the group's albums in the past except than paying exaggerated import prices on a hunch, it's now possible to listen to its records easily, legally and quickly on platforms such as Spotify. As much as such streaming providers might get rightfully criticized for failing to support artists directly and oddly distributing revenues, they certainly offer overlooked bands from exotic countries the opportunity to finally get discovered by fans from all around the world.

Run Riot comes in a quite nice package which starts with a charismatic cover artwork. The quartet honoured the New Wave of British Heavy Metal that inspired it to start playing music. The special edition of this album includes two cover songs by Paralex and Tank as well as a tribute show where the band played tracks by Angel Witch, Saxon, Tygers of Pan Tang, Venom and Warfare. This is one of the few cases when a limited edition is certainly worth the extra cost.

The regular album consists of ten original songs with a running time of forty-four minutes. Highlights include the raw, energetic and anthemic ''The Way We Are'' with its slight punk rock touch that can be described as band anthem without any doubt. ''Cyclops'' starts on a dreamy, eerie and floating note before it evolves into a modern thrash metal monster somewhere between Armored Saint and Testament. Album closer ''Are You Ready'' goes even one step further as it's the longest tune on this output with a length of just over five minutes. The track starts with wonderful guitar harmonies before a heartfelt solo leads to twin guitar leads that recall early Iron Maiden. The track explodes after a minute and a half and evolves into a ferocious thrash metal tune that convinces with traditional trademarks and a modern production at the same time in a very balanced way. This is easily a strong record's shining highlight that ends the album with a bang.

Run Riot doesn't include any fillers and offers melodic thrash metal with a timelessly modern edge recalling groups such as Anthrax, Armored Saint and Testament. Especially the songs with a few quieter parts where the excellent heavy metal guitar play by Abe Yousuke can shine through are absolutely outstanding. Several songs sound slightly interchangeable and the band's songwriting isn't always distinctive enough to compete with the international genre heavyweights. Nevertheless, anyone who likes melodic thrash metal with a modern edge should certainly discover Outrage in general and its fourteenth studio album Run Riot in particular. If you want to discover the gigantic back catalogue of this band, try to find a copy of the excellent 30th Anniversary XXX Box that has been released three years prior to this album and covers the band's entire impressive career with thirty songs and lots of extra material.

Final rating: 80%

Despite playing charismatic Middle Eastern folk metal, Tunisian quintet Myrath has been going through quite a few changes throughout its career. The band's first two albums could easily be classified as progressive metal that needed some spins to open up but offered much replay value with epic tracks reaching lengths of about seven minutes on average. The third album still included progressive elements but with much shorter tracks and more concise song writing. The band then opted for a catchy, melodic and simple approach on the last two albums to date. All these three phases of the band were intriguing as the group always continued to progress. This needs to be pointed out since this live album might give newcomers a very wrong impression.

The set list is limited to songs from the last three albums only. According to my information, one song from the second album was actually played in concert but didn't make it onto the final release for unfathomable reasons. Even among the last three albums, the band decided to play the most uplifting tunes in concert instead of including the few more progressive tracks or slightly darker tunes that fans of old date found quite appealing. These are the reasons why this sounds like the concert of a power metal band with folk elements rather than a progressive metal group with folk elements. The original songs worked well in the context of their more diversified regular full length efforts but sound somewhat predictable, repetitive and even tiresome in the context of this concert.

The set list isn't the only issue here. The idea to play a concert in Carthage on the African continent is actually excellent. However, the interactions between the singer and the crowd are at times confusing as they vary from Arabic to English and French conversations and monologues. Even though the record was recoded during one single concert, those interactions make it sound as if it had been recorded at different spots and slows down its potential fluidity.

Other than that, the quintet performs its songs with infectious enthusiasm. The numerous guest musicians on keyboards, darbuka and bendir enhance the quintet's folk stylistics. The stage production looks lush, the lightning techniques are very good and the sound is organic as well.

This live record is most recommended to those who have discovered Myrath very recently and appreciate the band's contemporary power folk metal soundscapes focused on short, catchy and accessible song writing. Fans of old date will however miss the lack of old songs and the group's more daring, extensive and progressive soundscapes. In a certain way, Myrath definitely leaves its early years behind with this output and certainly seems to be aiming for more accessible and commercially appealing song writing that could easily fit on an Assassin's Creed or Prince of Persia video game soundtrack.

Final rating: 67%

Four years after Leaves' Eyes nasty split with lead singer Liv Kristine, many people wondered whether the group would recover from those events and whether it would carry on at all. After a few lackluster singles and extended plays, Sign of the Dragonhead turned out to be a very solid record and The Last Viking now confirms this positive impression and tendency. The German-Dutch-Finnish quintet offers everything fans are craving for on its eight studio record from angelic female lead vocals to gloomy grunts, from epic folk instrumentation to heavy guitar riffs, from symphonic elements to powerful rhythm sections and from lyrics about Viking tales to Norse mythology between facts and fantasy. The band offers fourteen new songs with a running time of sixty-four minutes which makes this album by far the longest in the band's discography. As usual, there are a few fillers here and there but the vast majority of the song material is good to great and shows that the quintet might have hit its creative peak here.

The album includes several highlights such as the joyful, epic and nearly danceable ''Chain of the Golden Horn'' that opens the album on an enthusiastic note. The epic ballad ''Black Butterfly'' would make most symphonic metal bands go green with envy and features excellent additional vocals by Visions of Atlantis' singer Clémentine Delauney. ''Serkland'' is another anthemic highlight which should find its definite place in playlists for any folk rock and metal parties. Even though ''Varangians'' wasn't chosen as a single so far, it might be the record's greatest hit with an uplifting chorus and a balanced mixture of harsh male vocals and angelic female vocals. Cinematic title track ''The Last Viking'' is much more sinister and might need a few spins to unfold due to its extensive length but the group's longest song to date offers everything the band has always stood for and brings Viking imagery to life in hauntingly atmospheric manner.

Leaves' Eyes certainly doesn't reinvent itself or its genre for that matter. The record might be a tad bit too long with a few fillers in the middle section in particular. The numerous special editions with instrumental bonus disc or a documentary with a soundtrack aren't exactly essential either, However, the quintet's eight studio record The Last Viking offers atmospheric symphonic folk metal that balances aggressive, atmospheric, and catchy elements entertainingly, enthusiastically and fluidly. This album might need a few more spins than some of its predecessors due to its extensive length but offers much replay value as it meanders perfectly between short interludes, catchy single candidates and moody epics. While genre colleagues such as Nightwish push their experimentation much too far for their own good while Within Temptation have simplified their music to shallow pop music, Leaves' Eyes has been offering constant high-quality material on its albums for many years despite numerous challenging line-up changes. This record might be entitled The Last Viking but the band certainly has many more things to offer in the future just like Atrocity that consists of Leaves' Eyes four male members that have found their own new identity on the excellent past two full length records.

Final rating: 78%